An affiliate of Sycamore Partners, a New York-based private-equity firm that owns Aeropostale, Hot Topic, Talbots, and a number of other retail chains, announced that it has acquired the Coldwater Creek brand and related intellectual property. Sycam

Comcast Corp., the big Philadelphia-based cable, entertainment, and communications company, says it plans to open an Xfinity store on north Division Street and to move its Spokane customer service center there from its longtime location at 1717 E. Buckeye

Staples Inc., the Framingham, Mass.-based office supply retail chain, is making two of its Spokane-area outlets smaller, says a commercial real estate agent with some knowledge of the projects. Meantime, Party City Corp., a Rockaway N.J.-based party supp

L.D.E. Inc. will close the 19-year-old 50 Percent Off Card Shop in mid-June, one of four such stores it operates in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, says Linda Powell, longtime owner of the stores, citing a decline in sales as the reason for the planned

Red Lion Hotels Corp., of Spokane, says it has entered into an agreement with Sceptre Hospitality Resources, of Denver, to use that company's WindsurferCRS system as its reservation platform, technology that it hopes will add more access to reservation,

The Travelodge Hotel at the Spokane Convention Center downtown plans to change its affiliation and to begin operating as Downtown City Center Best Western Hotel, a Best Western Plus hotel, within the next 30 days, says Meredith Rainville, general manager.

Spokane-based Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories LLC is developing a new consumer-based testing product line, known as Cinch, says CEO Dr. Francisco Velázquez. Cinch, Velázquez says, will allow customers to order laboratory tests from hom